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Sunday, January 24, 2016

Last Friday was the 100th Day of School! It was such a fun day and I think the students will remember it for quite some time. I had the students dress up as 100 year-olds and boy did they come up with some adorable outfits! I even had one student bring in a walker and wore a bushy gray mustache and eyebrows. The boys were so cute with their canes, glasses, mustaches, suspenders, and overcoats. The girls were adorable with their floral dresses, glasses, hats, pearls, and huge handbags. They were just the cutest! The parents really got creative and I posted some pictures of the kids in our class website for them to enjoy. I even dressed up also! I got many funny looks at first and some of my colleagues had to ask who I was!

After the costume excitement and arrival we got right to work with our 100th Day of School activities. We played bingo (because lots of 100 year-olds enjoy bingo of course). We also completed our 100th Day of School activity books. Check them out here!

My students loved the 100th Day of School celebration! I am so glad we have made these memories in our classroom together and I hope they remember this day for years to come.

I love this PBS article shedding light on the benefits of art in child development. According to the article, art can benefit children's motor skills, language development, decision making, visual learning, inventiveness, cultural awareness, and improved academic performance. I couldn't agree with this article more!
In the era of the No Child Left Behind Act, art was in some many cases, eliminated from schools to make room for "drill and kill" teaching of the heavily tested subjects. Now that NCLB is behind us (whew!), there is a push for students to be creative problem solvers in this new era of Common Core and STEM/STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math).

My question is, how can students become engineers when they are not given the opportunity to practice fine motor skills and creativity? Art is such a great way to practice the early skills that can assist students with becoming inventors, engineers, and successful scientists and mathematicians. Don't forget to implement art in the classroom! Integrate art wherever and whenever you can, it has a place in every content area! From math drawings, to science diagrams, portraits of characters, and 3-demensional models, art fits all curricula. Not only will your students be more engaged in the content, they will be able to explain their thinking in multiple ways and build lifelong skills.

About Me

Hello! I am a first grade teacher in California. I believe learning should be engaging, interactive, and fun! I strive to create hands on lessons that stretch my students' understanding and allow them to tap into their creativity!